Hong Kong’s legislature on Thursday passed a bill amending electoral laws that drastically reduces the public’s ability to vote and increases the number of pro-Beijing lawmakers making decisions for the city.

Japan opened its first mass vaccination centres on Monday in a bid to speed up a cautious Covid-19 inoculation programme with just two months until Tokyo Olympics, news wires reported. The two military-run centres in Tokyo and Osaka will administer thousands of shots daily, initially to elderly residents of the cities, as the country battles a fourth wave of virus cases.

China’s first Mars rover has driven down from its landing platform and is now roaming the surface of the red planet, China’s space administration said Saturday.

China said Thursday it is providing COVID-19 vaccines to nearly 40 African countries, describing its actions as purely altruistic in an apparent intensification of what has been described as “vaccine diplomacy.”

A Japanese doctors' group urged the cancellation of the Olympics, even as Games organisers reported a surplus of applications from medics to volunteer at the virus-postponed event, AFP reported. An association of around 6,000 doctors working in Tokyo said they were "struggling with the fourth wave" of virus cases, calling it the largest so far.

He served as an interpreter alongside US soldiers on hundreds of patrols and dozens of firefights in eastern Afghanistan, earning a glowing letter of recommendation from an American platoon commander and a medal of commendation. Still, Ayazudin Hilal was turned down when he applied for one of the scarce special visas that would allow him to relocate to the US with his family, AP reports.

Nearly 60% of Japanese favour the cancellation of the Tokyo Olympics in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic, a latest survey conducted by Kyodo News showed on Sunday, dpa reported. The survey indicated that 59.7% of those polled agreed to cancel the postponed Olympics, while 25.2% said the Games should be held without an audience and 12.6% said the event should go ahead with a limited number of spectators.

Coronavirus cases are exploding in Asia and the Pacific with over 5.9 million new confirmed infections in the past two weeks, more than in all other regions combined, the International Federation of the Red Cross said Wednesday.

Japan decided to prolong a virus state of emergency in Tokyo and other regions and to impose restrictions in more areas on Friday, less than three months before the Olympics, news wires reported.

The Taliban have overrun a district in Afghanistan's northern province of Baghlan, officials said on Wednesday.